Updated: Fridley Fire Department Puts Out Fire in Wall of House

Updated below. Firefighters put out a fire that extended within two levels of the exterior wall of a house in Fridley Wednesday afternoon.

No one was hurt, said Fridley Fire Chief John Berg. 

Berg said on arrival at the house in the 5600 block of Matterhorn Drive NE, crews found flames behind paneling in a kitchen wall. In extinguishing the blaze, they punched a hole through the wall. An hour after the initial call at about 2:45 p.m., they were checking other wall areas for any remaining hot spots.

A man Berg identified as a tenant of the house stood in the driveway of the house with a dog as firefighters worked the fire. Authorities were trying to reach the owner of the house, according to Anoka County Emergency Dispatch radio.

In what he said was a preliminary take on the incident, Berg said the fire appeared to be associated with a chimney at the rear of the house.

Two fireplaces and grilling equipment at the house are gas-fueled, he said—not a typical source of this type of fire. The fire was not on the roof or in the attic, Berg said.

Also responding to the fire were crews from Columbia Heights, St. Anthony and Spring Lake Park-Blaine-Mounds View fire departments—as is automatic for structure fires under a mutual aid agreement.

Update (Thursday, noon): In an email Thursday, Fire Chief Berg gave this summary of Wednesday's fire on Matterhorn Drive NE:

Automatic Aid was dispatched for a reported “Fire in wall of Kitchen/See Smoke/Saw Flames” at 2:40 pm on January 4, 2012. The one occupant of the home had been burning wood in an exterior fireplace and was alerted to the problem by a smoke detector located on the upper level of the home. Firefighters discovered a fire in the exterior wall of the home on the east side on the upper level. They were able to open the wall and stop the fire from extending to the attic. The fire appears to have originated in an exterior fireplace and extended through the masonry chimney into the wall at the floor level were the lower and upper levels of the home meet. Damage to the home was contained to the areas mentioned and no injuries were reported.